Obokuitai Language
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Obokuitai (Obogwitai) is a Lakes Plain language of Papua,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It is named after ''Obogwi'' village in East Central Mambermano District, Mamberamo Raya Regency. Obokuitai, Sikaritai, and Eritai constitute a
dialect cluster A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...
.


Phonology

The following discussion is based on Jenison & Jenison (1991). Unusual phonological features of Obokuitai and other Lakes Plain languages are the complete lack of nasals, even allophones, and a series of extra high or fricativized vowels that developed from loss of a following stop consonant. Obokuitai has one of the smallest phonemic inventories in the world, equal to the Pirahã and
Rotokas Rotokas is a North Bougainville language spoken by about 4,320 people on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. Central Rotokas is most notable for its extremely small phonemic consonantal inventory, which lacks phonemic nasals. Dialects ...
languages at 11 phonemes.


Consonants

The small consonant inventory is typical of Lakes Plain languages. Obokuitai does have some more sounds as allophones. The voiced velar stop, occurs syllable initial following a syllable final /k/. For example, /dikka/ -> igga 'husband of wife's sister'. The voiced alveolar tap or flap, ¾ occurs between vowels in the syllable initial position and also as the second member of a consonant cluster in the syllable initial position. For example, /bÉ›da/ -> ɛɾa 'kind of sweet potato'.


Vowels

Obokuitai has five vowels.


Tone

Like the other Lakes Plain languages, Obokuitai is tonal. L, H, and HL pitch contours occur on monosyllabic words. A phonological analysis of the tone system remains to be completed. However, the probable phonemic aspect of the tone is shown through the minimal triad ''kuik1'' 'rock', ''kuik2'' 'insect' (sp.) and ''kuik12'' 'lizard' (sp.).UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2009), ''The Representation of Tone'', Larry M. Hyman, University of California, Berkeley. Available online at http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/documents/2009/Hyman_Representation_PLAR.pdf.


Pronouns

Possessive pronouns in Obokuitai are:


Verbs

Obokuitai has three verbal prefixes, which are: *''ha''-: reciprocal *''ke''-: causative *''be''-: applicative Some examples of verbs with the prefixes, as compared to the verb roots without them: There are two aspectual verbal suffixes: *-''kua'': imperfective *-''di'' ~ -''ei'' ~ ''Ø'': perfective These also have "background" forms, used with what Foley refers to as "backgrounded collateral clauses". *-''hoíd'': imperfective *-''hi'': perfective


Particles

Final particles in Obokuitai: *''ke'': exclamatory *''ia'': certainty *''te ~ toi'': imperative *''bi'': yes-no interrogative *''se'': information interrogative *''beid'': negative


References

{{Lakes Plain languages Lakes Plain languages Languages of Western New Guinea